Working adult learners are twice as likely as traditional learners to leave community college without a credential. This report provides the first evaluation of a program — Achieve Your Degree — to increase community college access and completion among working adult learners. The authors also offer recommendations for implementing employer–community college partnerships and other AYD program components to support working adult learners nationwide.

Employers as Partners in the Success of Working Adult Learners

The Achieve Your Degree Program

Megan Andrew, Kristin J. Leuschner, Tiffany Berglund, Lucas Greer, Kami Ehrich

ResearchPublished Jan 28, 2026

About 40 percent of all community college learners work full-time (referred to as working adult learners). However, working adult learners are about twice as likely as traditional learners to leave community college without a credential. Employer–community college partnerships can be key ingredients in any effort to address the lower completion rates of working adult learners. While many stakeholders have expressed interest in growing and strengthening such partnerships, evidence about their implementation or their impact on working adult learner success is limited.

In this report, the authors provide the first evaluation of how one program based on employer–community college partnerships, Achieve Your Degree (AYD), might improve credential completion among working adult learners attending a statewide community college system in Indiana. The authors' implementation study uses newly collected program survey data and detailed administrative data from the Ivy Tech Community College system. The authors' analysis of the impacts of AYD participation on credential completion uses regression models estimated using the same detailed administrative data. The authors offer recommendations to community colleges and community college systems nationwide that are interested in implementing and improving similar programming.

Key Findings

  • Linear regression models indicate that an additional academic term of AYD participation increases the likelihood of attaining a short-term certificate, a long-term certificate, and an associate degree.
  • The benefit of AYD participation is particularly large and most robust for working adult learners who complete short-term certificates, especially in approximately the first ten terms after a learner initially enrolls at Ivy Tech.
  • The positive impacts of AYD participation appear to extend to low-income learners who are eligible for federal Pell Grants while attending Ivy Tech.
  • AYD staff engage directly with employers to help enroll working adult learners at Ivy Tech and remove out-of-pocket costs based on federal tax allowances for employer-provided tuition.
  • However, AYD program staff appear to provide fewer specialized supports for working adult learners who participate in the AYD program, compared with employers — especially after AYD learners enroll at Ivy Tech.

Recommendations

  • Community colleges and systems nationwide might similarly work directly with employers — especially small- to medium-sized employers — to access and use federal tax allowances to support working adult learners.
  • Community colleges and systems should focus investments on community college staff who work directly with employers, whether in the context of a new AYD-like program or as part of existing institutional staffing. Using the AYD program implementation model, these staff should help initiate and even deepen employer engagement with a community college and employee-learners.
  • Community colleges and systems interested in implementing and improving AYD-like programming should focus on providing academic, career, and even wraparound supports to working adult learners — including at the worksite. Employers can join in the effort, providing more manager support for working adult learners.
  • Because short-term certificates tend to produce no or very small wage gains for those who complete them, community colleges and systems interested in implementing AYD-like programming should educate employers and working adult learners on the different wage returns associated with various credentials, implement quality assurance measures to potentially help improve the wage returns of short-term certificates, and coordinate efforts with employers to help working adult learners complete additional education and training.

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Andrew, Megan, Kristin J. Leuschner, Tiffany Berglund, Lucas Greer, and Kami Ehrich, Employers as Partners in the Success of Working Adult Learners: The Achieve Your Degree Program. Santa Monica, CA: RAND Corporation, 2026. https://www.rand.org/pubs/research_reports/RRA3681-1.html.
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